The Aaron Papers  www.the-aaron-papers.net 

  Jeremiah

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: ²to whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Jo-si-ah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³It came also in the days of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

⁴Now the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁵Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations. ⁶Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child. ⁷But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send you you shall go, and whatsoever I shall command you you shall speak. ⁸Be not afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you, says Jehovah. ⁹Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth: ¹⁰see, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

¹¹Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. ¹²Then said Jehovah unto me, you have well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it. ¹³And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is from the north. ¹⁴Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. ¹⁶And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. ¹⁷You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I have command you: be not dismayed at them, unless I dismay you before them. ¹⁸For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. ¹⁹And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you, says Jehovah, to deliver you.

2 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ²Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, this says Jehovah, I remember for the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. ³Israel was holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, says Jehovah. ⁴Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: ⁵this says Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? ⁶Neither said they, Where is Jehovah that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man dwelt? ⁷And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸The priests did not say, Where is Jehovah? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹Wherefore I will yet contend with you, says Jehovah, and with your children’s children will I contend. ¹⁰For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Ke-dar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹Has a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. ¹²Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be very desolate, says Jehovah. ¹³For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a prey? ¹⁵The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. ¹⁶The children also of Memphis and Tah-pan-hes have broken the crown of your head. ¹⁷Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, when he led you by the way? ¹⁸And now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? ¹⁹Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing, that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

²⁰For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green tree you did bow yourself, playing the harlot. ²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me? ²²For though you wash with lye, and you take much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Jehovah. ²³How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways; ²⁴a wild ass used to the wilderness, that sniffs up the wind in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. ²⁵Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. ²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets; ²⁷who say to a stock, you are my father; and to a stone, you have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. ²⁸But where are your gods that you have made? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹Why will you contend with me? you all have transgressed against me, says Jehovah. ³⁰In vain have I affected your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ³¹O generation, see the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why do my people say, We are broken loose; we will come no more unto you? ³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. ³³What? Trim you your way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women have you taught your ways. ³⁴Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: you did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. ³⁵Yet you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, I have not sinned. ³⁶Why do you gad about so much to change your way? you shall be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. ³⁷From then also shall you go forth, with your hands upon your head: for Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

3 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s wife, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Jehovah. ²Lift up your eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an A-ra-bi-an in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness. ³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a harlot’s forehead, you refuse to be ashamed. ⁴Will you not from this time cry unto me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? ⁵Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.

⁶Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days of Jo-si-ah the king, have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. ⁷And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot. ⁹And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. ¹⁰And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned unto me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says Jehovah. ¹¹And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel has showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I am merciful, says Jehovah, I will not keep anger for ever. ¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Jehovah your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says Jehovah. ¹⁴Return, O backsliding children, says Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: ¹⁵and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. ¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers. ¹⁹But I said, How I will put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said, you shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.

²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah. ²¹A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God. ²²Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we are come unto you; for you are Jehovah our God. ²³Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel. ²⁴But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

4 If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, if you will return unto me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed; ²and you shall swear, As Jehovah lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³For this says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. ⁴Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; unless my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. ⁶Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, delay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. ⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant. ⁸For this gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us. ⁹And it shall come to pass at that day, says Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder. ¹⁰Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, you shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches unto the life. ¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse; ¹²a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them. ¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined. ¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, and published evil from the hills of Ephraim: ¹⁶make mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says Jehovah. ¹⁸Thy way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches unto your heart.

¹⁹My soul, my soul! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. ²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²²For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are silly children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. ²³I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. ²⁶I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before his fierce anger. ²⁷For this says Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. ²⁸For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. ²⁹Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. ³⁰And you, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself fair; your lovers despise you, they seek your life. ³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that brought forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gasps for breath, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.

5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that does justly, that seeks truth; and I will pardon her. ²And though they say, As Jehovah lives; surely they swear falsely. ³O Jehovah, do not your eyes look upon truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. ⁴Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God: ⁵I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. ⁶Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; every one that goes out then shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. ⁷How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots’ houses. ⁸They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. ⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah’s. ¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says Jehovah. ¹²They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: ¹³and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: this shall it be done unto them. ¹⁴Therefore this says Jehovah, the God of hosts: Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. ¹⁵Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, nor understand what they say. ¹⁶Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. ¹⁷And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, wherein you trust, with the sword. ¹⁸But even in those days, says Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you. ¹⁹And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why has Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shall you say unto them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, ²¹Now hear this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not: ²²Do you not fear me? says Jehovah: will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. ²³But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. ²⁴Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. ²⁶For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men. ²⁷As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and become rich. ²⁸They are become fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. ²⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? ³⁰An astounding and horrible thing is come to pass in the land: ³¹the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

6 Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in TeKo-a, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction. ²The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off. ³Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place. ⁴Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day wanes: for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. ⁵Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces. ⁶For this has Jehovah of hosts said, Hew down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is full of oppression in her midst. ⁷As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds. ⁸Be instructed, O Jerusalem, unless my soul be alienated from you; unless I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹This says Jehovah of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets. ¹⁰To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah is become unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. ¹¹Therefore I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. ¹²And their houses shall be turned unto others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says Jehovah. ¹³For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. ¹⁴They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹⁵Were they ashamed when they had committed idolatry? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Jehovah. ¹⁶This says Jehovah, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. ¹⁷And I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken.

¹⁸Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. ¹⁹Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. ²⁰To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from She-ba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing unto me. ²¹Therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish. ²²This says Jehovah, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. ²³They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴We have heard the report thereof; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pangs as of a woman in travail. ²⁵Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, and terror, are on every side. ²⁶O daughter of my people, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and wallow yourselves in ashes: make mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us. ²⁷I have made you a tryer and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way. ²⁸They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all deal corruptly. ²⁹The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰Refuse silver shall men call them, because Jehovah has rejected them.

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim this word there, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. ³This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴Trust not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these. ⁵For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; ⁶if you oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: ⁷then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore. ⁸Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. ⁹Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations? ¹¹Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Jehovah. ¹²But go now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³And now, because you have done all these works, says Jehovah, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not: ¹⁴therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. ¹⁷Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. ¹⁹Do they provoke me to anger? says Jehovah; do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? ²⁰Therefore this says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. ²²For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: ²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the ways that I command you, that it may be well with you. ²⁴But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. ²⁵Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: ²⁶yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers. ²⁷And you shall speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to you: you shall also call unto them; but they will not answer you. ²⁸And you shall say unto them, This is the nation that has not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Jehovah has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. ³⁰For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither did it came into my mind. ³²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. ³³And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. ³⁴Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8 At that time, says Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; ²and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Jehovah of hosts.

⁴Moreover you shall say unto them, this says Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? ⁵Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. ⁶I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. ⁷Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah. ⁸How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has wrought falsely. ⁹The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them? ¹⁰Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. ¹¹And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

9 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! ²Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ³And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says Jehovah. ⁴Take heed every one of his neighbor, and trust not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Jehovah. ⁷Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it spoke deceit: one spoke peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him. ⁹Shall I not visit them for these things, says Jehovah? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? ¹⁰For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone. ¹¹And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹²Who is the wise man, that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through? ¹³And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them. ¹⁷This says Jehovah of hosts, Consider and call for the mourners, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may come: ¹⁸and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. ¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How we are ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. ²²Speak, this says Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather them.

²³This says Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; ²⁴but let him that glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Jehovah who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Jehovah. ²⁵Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision: ²⁶Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Am-mon, and Mo-ab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

10 Hear the word which Jehovah spoke unto you, O house of Israel: ²this says Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. ⁴They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. ⁵They are like a palm-tree, of  turned work, and speak not: they must need to be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. ⁶There is none like unto you, O Jehovah; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷Who should not fear you, O King of the nations? for this is your rightful due; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto you. ⁸But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tar-shish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men. ¹⁰But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation. ¹¹This shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. ¹²He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ¹³when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and has brought forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your wares out of the land, O you that abide in the siege. ¹⁸For this says Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it. ¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²²The voice of tidings, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals. ²³O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps. ²⁴O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, unless you bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out your wrath upon the nations that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

11 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Hear the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ³and say you unto them, this says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man that hears not the words of this covenant, ⁴which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God; ⁵that I may establish the oath which I swore unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, O Jehovah. ⁶And Jehovah said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. ⁷For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. ⁸Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not. ⁹And Jehovah said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

¹¹Therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry unto me, but I will not hearken unto them. ¹²Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. ¹³For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. ¹⁴Therefore pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me because of their trouble. ¹⁵What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice. ¹⁶Jehovah called your name, A green olive-tree, fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. ¹⁷For Jehovah of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense unto Baal.

¹⁸And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you showed me their doings. ¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. ²⁰But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for unto you have I revealed my cause. ²¹Therefore this says Jehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek your life, saying, you shall not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that you die not by our hand; ²²therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; ²³and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

12 You are righteous, O Jehovah, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease that deal very treacherously? ²You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart. ³But you, O Jehovah, know me; you see me, and have tried my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. ⁴How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country where? for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end. ⁵If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan? ⁶For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you.

⁷I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. ⁸My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her. ⁹Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her round about? go and assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour. ¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. ¹¹They have made it a desolation; it mourns unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart. ¹²Destroyers are come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Jehovah devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace. ¹³They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

¹⁴This says Jehovah against all my evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As Jehovah lives; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people. ¹⁷But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Jehovah.

13 This says Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy you a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water. ²So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah, and put it upon my loins. ³And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, ⁴Take the girdle that you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. ⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me. ⁶And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide. ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. ⁸Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁹This says Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for nothing. ¹¹For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

¹²Therefore you shall speak unto them this word: this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? ¹³Then shall you say unto them, this says Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. ¹⁴And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them. ¹⁵Hear now, and give ear; be not proud; for Jehovah has spoken. ¹⁶Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. ¹⁷But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and my eye shall weep much, and run down with tears, because Jehovah’s flock is taken captive. ¹⁸Say unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your rule shall collapse, even the crown of your glory. ¹⁹The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive. ²⁰Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? ²¹What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

²²And if you say in your heart, Why are these things come upon me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence. ²³Can the E-thi-o-pi-an change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. ²⁴Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness. ²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured unto you from me, says Jehovah; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. ²⁶Therefore will I also uncover your skirts upon your face, and your shame shall appear. ²⁷I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of your whoredom, on the hills in the field. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem! you will not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?

14 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. ²Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. ³And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads. ⁴Because of the ground which is cracked, for that no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads. ⁵Yes, the doe also gave birth in the field, and forsook it, because there is no grass. ⁶And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no grass. ⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. ⁸O you are the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why should you be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? ⁹Why should you be as a man frightened, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O Jehovah, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

¹⁰This says Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah does not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. ¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. ¹³Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Behold, the prophets say unto them, you shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. ¹⁴Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither did I speak unto them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. ¹⁵Therefore this says Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. ¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them--them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷And you shall say this word unto them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. ¹⁸If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge. ¹⁹Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you affected us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! ²⁰We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. ²¹Do not despise us, for your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us. ²²Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.

15 Then Jehovah said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. ²And it shall come to pass, when they say unto you, where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, this says Jehovah: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. ³And I will appoint over them four kinds, says Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. ⁴And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. ⁵For who will have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare? ⁶You have rejected me, says Jehovah, you are gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting. ⁷And I have scattered them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways. ⁸Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. ⁹She that has borne seven languishes; she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Jehovah.

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them does curse me. ¹¹Jehovah said, Verily I will strengthen you for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. ¹²Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass? ¹³Your substance and your treasures will I give for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. ¹⁴And I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you.

¹⁵O Jehovah, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach. ¹⁶Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. ¹⁷I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation. ¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail? ¹⁹Therefore this says Jehovah, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return unto you, but you shall not return unto them. ²⁰And I will make you unto this people a fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Jehovah. ²¹And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

16 The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, ²You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place. ³For this says Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land: ⁴They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth. ⁵For this says Jehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Jehovah, even lovingkindness and tender mercies. ⁶Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; ⁷neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. ⁸And you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. ⁹For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Why has Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Jehovah our God? ¹¹Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; ¹²and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you hearken not unto me: ¹³therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ¹⁵but, As Jehovah lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. ¹⁶Behold, I will send for many fishers, says Jehovah, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. ¹⁹O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit. ²⁰Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods? ²¹Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

17 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; ²while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills. ³O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders. ⁴And you, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn for ever.

⁵This says Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah. ⁶For he shall be like the juniper in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. ⁷Blessed is the man that trusts in Jehovah, and whose trust Jehovah is. ⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. ⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? ¹⁰I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. ¹¹As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he that gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. ¹³O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be put to shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. ¹⁴Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise. ¹⁵Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now. ¹⁶As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face. ¹⁷Be not a terror unto me: you are my refuge in the day of evil. ¹⁸Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹This said Jehovah unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰and say unto them, Hear the word of Jehovah, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: ²¹This says Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do you any work: but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. ²³But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. ²⁴And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto me, says Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; ²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain for ever. ²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah. ²⁷But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. ³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels. ⁴And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. ⁵Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ⁶O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. ⁹And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

¹¹Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, this says Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹²But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. ¹³Therefore this says Jehovah: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. ¹⁴Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? ¹⁵For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; ¹⁶to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes by shall be astonished, and shake his head. ¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

¹⁸Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. ¹⁹Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. ²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. ²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men affected of the sword in battle. ²²Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. ²³Yet, Jehovah, you know all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

19 This said Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; ²and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you; ³and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle. ⁴Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither did it come into my mind: ⁶therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. ⁷And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth. ⁸And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; every one that passes by shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. ⁹And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.

¹⁰Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you, ¹¹and shall say unto them, this says Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. ¹²This will I do unto this place, says Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth: ¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods. ¹⁴Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah’s house, and said to all the people: ¹⁵This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.

20 Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ²Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah. ³And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said unto him, Jehovah has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. ⁴For this says Jehovah, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. ⁵Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all the gains thereof, and all the precious things thereof, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all that dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

⁷O Jehovah, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me. ⁸For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Jehovah is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day. ⁹And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain. ¹⁰For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, says all my familiar friends, they that watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. ¹¹But Jehovah is with me as a mighty and a terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly put to shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten. ¹²But, O Jehovah of hosts, that tries the righteous, that sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for unto you have I revealed my cause. ¹³Sing unto Jehovah, praise Jehovah; for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. ¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born unto you; making him very glad. ¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime; ¹⁷because he did not kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. ¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

21 The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, ²Inquire, I pray you, of Jehovah for us; for Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon makes war against us: peradventure Jehovah will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us. ³Then said Jeremiah unto them, this shall you say to Zedekiah: ⁴This says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chal-de-ans that besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst of this city. ⁵And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation. ⁶And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷And afterward, says Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸And unto this people you shall say, this says Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He that abides in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goes out, and passes over to the Chal-de-ans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. ¹⁰For I have set my face upon this city for evil, and not for good, says Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. ¹¹And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of Jehovah: ¹²O house of David, this says Jehovah, Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, unless my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. ¹³Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain, says Jehovah; you that say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations? ¹⁴And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.

22 This said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, ²And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sits upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in by these gates. ³This says Jehovah: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. ⁵But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Jehovah, that this house shall become a desolation. ⁶For this says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: you are Gil-e-ad unto me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. ⁷And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. ⁸And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done this unto this great city? ⁹Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

¹⁰Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him that goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. ¹¹For this says Jehovah touching Shallum the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Jo-si-ah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more. ¹²But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more. ¹³Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not his hire; ¹⁴that says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts out windows; and it is covered with cedar, and painted with vermilion. ¹⁵Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was well with him. ¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? says Jehovah. ¹⁷But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. ¹⁸Therefore this says Jehovah concerning Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah my sister! They shall not lament for him, saying Ah my lord! or, Ah his glory! ¹⁹He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. ²¹I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice. ²²The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. ²³O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail! ²⁴As I live, says Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Je-hoi-a-kim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you then; ²⁵and I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chal-de-ans. ²⁶And I will cast you out, and your mother that bare you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die. ²⁷But to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return. ²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein none delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not? ²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah. ³⁰This says Jehovah, Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

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23 Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Jehovah. ²Therefore this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that feed my people: you have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says Jehovah. ³And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴And I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Jehovah. ⁵Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness. ⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; ⁸but, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.

⁹Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words. ¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right; ¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Jehovah. ¹²Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says Jehovah. ¹³And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. ¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. ¹⁵Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land. ¹⁶This says Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah. ¹⁷They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah has said, you shall have peace; and unto every one that walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you. ¹⁸For who has stood in the council of Jehovah, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it? ¹⁹Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. ²⁰The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. ²¹I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spoke not unto them, yet they prophesied. ²²But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. ²³Am I a God that is near, says Jehovah, and not a God that is far off? ²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Jehovah. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says Jehovah. ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. ²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? ²⁷that think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal. ²⁸The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says Jehovah. ²⁹Is not my word like fire? says Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, says Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He says. ³²Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, says Jehovah, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Jehovah.

³³And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then shall you say unto them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Jehovah. ³⁴And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house. ³⁵This shall you say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? and, What has Jehovah spoken? ³⁶And the burden of Jehovah shall you mention no more: for every man’s own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God. ³⁷This shall you say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? and, What has Jehovah spoken? ³⁸But if you say, The burden of Jehovah; therefore this says Jehovah: Because you say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you, saying, you shall not say, The burden of Jehovah; ³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave unto you and to your fathers, away from my presence: ⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

24 Jehovah showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah, after that Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Je-hoi-a-kim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. ²One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. ³Then Jehovah said unto me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. ⁴And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁵This says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chal-de-ans, for good. ⁶For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ⁷And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. ⁸And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely this says Jehovah, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt, ⁹I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. ¹⁰And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah (the same was the first year of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon,) ²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: ³From the thirteenth year of Jo-si-ah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah has come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not hearkened. ⁴And Jehovah has sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear,) ⁵saying, Return now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah has given unto you and to your fathers, from of old and even for evermore; ⁶and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. ⁷Yet you have not hearkened unto me, says Jehovah; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

⁸Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts: Because you have not heard my words, ⁹behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Jehovah, and I will send unto Neb-u-chad-nez-zar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. ¹⁰Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. ¹¹And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹²And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says Jehovah, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chal-de-ans; and I will make it desolate for ever. ¹³And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴For many nations and great kings shall make bondmen of them, even of them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.

¹⁵For this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. ¹⁶And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. ¹⁷Then I took the cup at Jehovah’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom Jehovah had sent me: ¹⁸to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; ¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; ²⁰and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ash-ke-lon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹Edom, and Mo-ab, and the children of Am-mon; ²²and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea; ²³De-dan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off; ²⁴and all the kings of A-ra-bi-a, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the wilderness; ²⁵and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; ²⁶and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. ²⁷And you shall say unto them, this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. ²⁸And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you say unto them, this says Jehovah of hosts: you shall surely drink. ²⁹For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? you shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says Jehovah of hosts.

³⁰Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say unto them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. ³¹A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah has a controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, says Jehovah. ³²This says Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. ³³And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground. ³⁴Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes, you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel. ³⁵And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. ³⁶A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal of the flock! for Jehovah lays waste their pasture. ³⁷And the peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of Jehovah. ³⁸He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, and because of his fierce anger.

26 In the beginning of the reign of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying, ²This says Jehovah: Stand in the court of Jehovah’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Jehovah’s house, all the words that I command you to speak unto them; diminish not a word. ³It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. ⁴And you shall say unto them, this says Jehovah: If you will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, ⁵to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened; ⁶then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

⁷And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah. ⁸And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, you shall surely die. ⁹Why have you prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah. ¹⁰And when the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house unto the house of Jehovah; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of Jehovah’s house. ¹¹Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears. ¹²Then spoke Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. ¹³Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Jehovah your God; and Jehovah will repent of the evil that he has pronounced against you. ¹⁴But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes. ¹⁵Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth Jehovah has sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.

¹⁶Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death; for he has spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God. ¹⁷Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, ¹⁸Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, this says Jehovah of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. ¹⁹Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not fear Jehovah, and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? this should we commit great evil against our own souls. ²⁰And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of Jehovah, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah: ²¹and when Je-hoi-a-kim the king, with all his mighty-men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt: ²²and Je-hoi-a-kim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt; ²³and they brought forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Je-hoi-a-kim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. ²⁴But the hand of A-hi-kam the son of Sha-phan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

27 In the beginning of the reign of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²This said Jehovah to me: Make bonds and bars, and put them upon your neck; ³and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Mo-ab, and to the king of the children of Am-mon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; ⁴and give them a charge unto their masters, saying, this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, this shall you say unto your masters: ⁵I have made the earth, the men and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it unto whom it seems right unto me. ⁶And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him. ⁷And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondman. ⁸And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says Jehovah, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. ⁹But as for you, hearken not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, that speak unto you, saying, you shall not serve the king of Babylon: ¹⁰for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish. ¹¹But the nation that shall place themselves under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that nation will I let remain in their own land, says Jehovah; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

28 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of A-zur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke unto me in the house of Jehovah, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, ²This spoke Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of Jehovah’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried to Babylon: ⁴and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Je-hoi-a-kim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went to Babylon, says Jehovah; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. ⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of Jehovah, ⁶even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: Jehovah do so; Jehovah perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Jehovah’s house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylon unto this place. ⁷Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people: ⁸The prophets that have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. ⁹The prophet that prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that Jehovah has truly sent him.

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and broke it. ¹¹And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, this says Jehovah: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. ¹²Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ¹³Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, this says Jehovah: you have broken the bars of wood; but you have made in their stead bars of iron. ¹⁴For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. ¹⁵Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah: Jehovah has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie. ¹⁶Therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will send you away from off the face of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have spoken rebellion against Jehovah. ¹⁷So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

29 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, ²(after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem,) ³by the hand of Elasah the son of Sha-phan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,) saying, ⁴This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem unto Babylon: ⁵Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. ⁶Take wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply you there, and be not diminished. ⁷And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it; for in the peace thereof shall you have peace.

⁸For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you; neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. ⁹For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, says Jehovah. ¹⁰For this says Jehovah, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. ¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. ¹²And you shall call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. ¹³And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. ¹⁴And I will be found of you, says Jehovah, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Jehovah; and I will bring you again unto the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.

¹⁵Because you have said, Jehovah has raised us up prophets in Babylon; ¹⁶this says Jehovah concerning the king that sits upon the throne of David, and concerning all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; ¹⁷this says Jehovah of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. ¹⁸And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an abhorrence, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them; ¹⁹because they have not hearkened to my words, says Jehovah, wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says Jehovah. ²⁰Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²¹This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie unto you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes; ²²and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; ²³because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I commanded them not; and I am he that knows, and am witness, says Jehovah.

²⁴And concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, ²⁵This spoke Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, ²⁶Jehovah has made you priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of Jehovah, for every man that is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles. ²⁷Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you, ²⁸forasmuch as he has sent unto us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long: build houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them? ²⁹And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. ³⁰Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying, ³¹Send to all them of the captivity, saying, this says Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because that Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he has caused you to trust in a lie; ³²therefore this says Jehovah, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do unto my people, says Jehovah, because he has spoken rebellion against Jehovah.

**

30 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²This spoke Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Write all the words that I have spoken unto you in a book. ³For, lo, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Jehovah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. ⁴And these are the words that Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. ⁵For this says Jehovah: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. ⁶Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? ⁷Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. ⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, says Jehovah of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondman; ⁹but they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.

¹⁰Therefore fear not, O Jacob my servant, says Jehovah; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. ¹¹For I am with you, says Jehovah, to save you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no wise leave you unpunished. ¹²For this says Jehovah, your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous. ¹³There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines. ¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not: for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased. ¹⁵Why do you cry for your hurt? your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things unto you. ¹⁶Therefore all they that devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that ravage you shall be a plunder, and all that prey upon you will I give for a prey. ¹⁷For I will restore health unto you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Jehovah; because they have called you an outcast, saying, It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.

¹⁸This says Jehovah: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be built upon its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner. ¹⁹And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. ²⁰Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all that oppress them. ²¹And their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is he that has had boldness to approach unto me? says Jehovah. ²²And you shall be my people, and I will be your God. ²³Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, even his wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. ²⁴The fierce anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it.

31 At that time, says Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. ²This says Jehovah, The people that were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. ³Jehovah appeared of old unto me, saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you. ⁴Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again shall you be adorned with your tabrets, and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry. ⁵Again shall you plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit thereof. ⁶For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God. ⁷For this says Jehovah, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, O Jehovah, save your people, the remnant of Israel. ⁸Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall they return here. ⁹They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.

¹⁰Hear the word of Jehovah, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off; and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock. ¹¹For Jehovah has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. ¹²And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. ¹³Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. ¹⁴And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Jehovah. ¹⁵This says Jehovah: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not. ¹⁶This says Jehovah: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Jehovah; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷And there is hope for your latter end, says Jehovah; and your children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself this, you have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke: you turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Jehovah my God. ¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. ²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says Jehovah. ²¹Set up waymarkers, make you guide-posts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. ²²How long will you go here and there, O you backsliding daughter? for Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man. ²³This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity: Jehovah bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness. ²⁴And Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together, the husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks. ²⁵For I have filled the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished. ²⁶Upon this I awakened, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

²⁷Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Jehovah. ²⁹In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. ³⁰But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. ³¹Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, says Jehovah. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: ³⁴and they shall no more teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

³⁵This says Jehovah, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; Jehovah of hosts is his name: ³⁶If these ordinances depart from before me, says Jehovah, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. ³⁷This says Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Jehovah. ³⁸Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that the city shall be built to Jehovah from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner. ³⁹And the measuring line shall go out further straight onward unto the hill Gareb, and shall turn about unto Goah. ⁴⁰And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto Jehovah; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever. (Ezek.40-48)

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar. ²Now at that time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house. ³For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, why do you prophesy, and say, this says Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; ⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chal-de-ans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; ⁵and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says Jehovah: though you fight with the Chal-de-ans, you shall not prosper? ⁶And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁷Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come unto you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. ⁸So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Jehovah, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of Jehovah. ⁹And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰And I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. ¹¹So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, according to the law and custom, and that which was open: ¹²and I delivered the deed of the purchase unto Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah, the son of Ma-a-sei-ah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the guard. ¹³And I charged Bar-uch before them, saying, ¹⁴This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days. ¹⁵For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.

¹⁶Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase unto Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah, I prayed unto Jehovah, saying, ¹⁷Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you, ¹⁸who showed lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensed the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, Jehovah of hosts is his name; ¹⁹great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: ²⁰who did set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself a name, as at this day; ²¹and did bring forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror; ²²and gave them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; ²³and they came in, and possessed it, but they obeyed not your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them. ²⁴Behold, the mounds, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chal-de-ans that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken is come to pass; and, behold, you see it. ²⁵And you have said unto me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy you the field for money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chal-de-ans.

²⁶Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying, ²⁷Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? ²⁸Therefore this says Jehovah: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chal-de-ans, and into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon, and he shall take it: ²⁹and the Chal-de-ans, that fight against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger. ³⁰For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Jehovah. ³¹For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face, ³²because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³³And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. ³⁴But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³⁵And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. ³⁶And now therefore this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning this city, why do you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: ³⁷Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: ³⁸and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: ³⁹and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: ⁴⁰and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. ⁴¹Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. ⁴²For this says Jehovah: Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof you say, It is desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chal-de-ans. ⁴⁴Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill-country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: for I will cause their captivity to return, says Jehovah.

33 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying, ²This says Jehovah that does it, Jehovah that forms it to establish it; Jehovah is his name: ³Call unto me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you know not. ⁴For this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defense against the mounds and against the sword; ⁵while men come to fight with the Chal-de-ans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city: ⁶Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal unto them abundance of peace and truth. ⁷And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. ⁸And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me. ⁹And this city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure unto it.

¹⁰This says Jehovah: Yet again there shall be heard in this place, whereof you say, It is waste, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, ¹¹the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Give thanks to Jehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for his lovingkindness endures for ever; and of them that bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of Jehovah. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says Jehovah. ¹²This says Jehovah of hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. ¹³In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him that numbered them, says Jehovah. ¹⁴Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. ** ¹⁵In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby she shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.

¹⁷For this says Jehovah: David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; ¹⁸neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to burn meal-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. ¹⁹And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰This says Jehovah: If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season; ²¹then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. ²²As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. ²³And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁴Consider not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah did choose, he has cast them off? this do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. ²⁵This says Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night stand not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; ²⁶then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them.

34 The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying: ²This says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, this says Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: ³and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon. ⁴Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: this says Jehovah concerning you, you shall not die by the sword; ⁵you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of spices for your fathers, the former kings that were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, saying, Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, says Jehovah. ⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.

⁸The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; ⁹that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondmen of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. ¹⁰And all the princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into the covenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go: ¹¹but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. ¹²Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ¹³This says Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, ¹⁴At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that has been sold unto you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. ¹⁵And you were now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: ¹⁶but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. ¹⁷Therefore this says Jehovah: you have not hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, says Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, that have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts thereof; ¹⁹the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts of the calf; ²⁰I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food unto the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth. ²¹And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, that are gone away from you. ²²Behold, I will command, says Jehovah, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

35 The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, saying, ²Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of Jehovah, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. ³Then I took Ja-az-a-ni-ah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; ⁴and I brought them into the house of Jehovah, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold. ⁵And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said unto them, Drink the wine. ⁶But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, you shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, for ever: ⁷neither shall you build a house, nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land wherein you sojourn. ⁸And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; ⁹nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: ¹⁰but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹But it came to pass, when Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chal-de-ans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem.

¹²Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying, ¹³This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to hearken to my words? says Jehovah. ¹⁴The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and unto this day they drink none, for they obey their father’s commandment: but I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; and you have not hearkened unto me. ¹⁵I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me. ¹⁶Forasmuch as the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not hearkened unto me; ¹⁷therefore this says Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered. ¹⁸And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he commanded you; ¹⁹therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not have a man cut off to stand before me for ever.

36 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Take a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke unto you, from the days of Jo-si-ah, even unto this day. ³It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. ⁴Then Jeremiah called Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah; and Bar-uch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. ⁵And Jeremiah commanded Bar-uch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of Jehovah: ⁶therefore you go, and read from the roll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in Jehovah’s house upon the fast-day; and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. ⁷It may be they will present their supplication before Jehovah, and will return every one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that Jehovah has pronounced against this people. ⁸And Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of Jehovah in Jehovah’s house.

⁹Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before Jehovah. ¹⁰Then Bar-uch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Sha-phan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Jehovah’s house, in the ears of all the people. ¹¹And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Sha-phan, had heard out of the book all the words of Jehovah, ¹²he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes were sitting there, to wit, Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Sha-phan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. ¹³Then Micaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Bar-uch read the book in the ears of the people. ¹⁴Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Bar-uch, saying, Take in your hand the roll wherein you have read in the ears of the people, and come. So Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them. ¹⁵And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Bar-uch read it in their ears. ¹⁶Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said unto Bar-uch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. ¹⁷And they asked Bar-uch, saying, Tell us now, How did you write all these words from his mouth? ¹⁸Then Bar-uch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. ¹⁹Then said the princes unto Bar-uch, Go, hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.

²⁰And they went in to the king into the court; but they had laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king. ²¹So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king. ²²Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him. ²³And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. ²⁴And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. ²⁵Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them. ²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Se-rai-ah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Bar-uch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah hid them. ²⁷Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Bar-uch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, ²⁸Take again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Je-hoi-a-kim the king of Judah has burned. ²⁹And concerning Je-hoi-a-kim king of Judah you shall say, this says Jehovah: you have burned this roll, saying, Why have you written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from then man and beast? ³⁰Therefore this says Jehovah concerning Je-hoi-a-kim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. ³¹And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearkened not. ³²Then Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Bar-uch the scribe, the son of Ne-ri-ah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Je-hoi-a-kim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words.

37 And Zedekiah the son of Jo-si-ah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the son of Je-hoi-a-kim, whom Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. ²But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of Jehovah, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. ³And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto Jehovah our God for us. ⁴Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put him into prison. ⁵And Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt; and when the Chal-de-ans that were besieging Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they broke off from Jerusalem. ⁶Then came the word of Jehovah unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ⁷This says Jehovah, the God of Israel, this shall you say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. ⁸And the Chal-de-ans shall come again, and fight against this city; and they shall take it, and burn it with fire. ⁹This says Jehovah, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chal-de-ans shall surely depart from us; for they shall not depart. ¹⁰For though you had affected the whole army of the Chal-de-ans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yes would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

¹¹And it came to pass that, when the army of the Chal-de-ans was broken off from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, ¹²then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the midst of the people. ¹³And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he laid hold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, you are falling away to the Chal-de-ans. ¹⁴Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I am not falling away to the Chal-de-ans. But he hearkened not to him; so Irijah laid hold on Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. ¹⁵And the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. ¹⁶When Jeremiah was come into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days; ¹⁷Then Zedekiah the king sent, and brought him: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And Jeremiah said, There is. He said also, you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. ¹⁸Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, Wherein have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? ²⁰And now hear, I pray you, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray you, be presented before you, that you cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, unless I die there. ²¹Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

38 And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Ged-a-li-ah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke unto all the people, saying, ²This says Jehovah, He that abides in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goes forth to the Chal-de-ans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live. ³This says Jehovah, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. ⁴Then the princes said unto the king, Let this man, we pray you, be put to death; forasmuch as he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. ⁵And Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you. ⁶Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire. ⁷Now when Ebed-melech the E-thi-o-pi-an, a eunuch, who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin,) ⁸Ebed-melech went forth out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying, ⁹My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city. ¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the E-thi-o-pi-an, saying, Take from hence thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die there. ¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. ¹²And Ebed-melech the E-thi-o-pi-an said unto Jeremiah, Put these rags and worn-out garments under your armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. ¹³So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¹⁴Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of Jehovah: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask you a thing; hide nothing from me. ¹⁵Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto you, will you not surely put me to death? and if I give you counsel, you will not hearken unto me. ¹⁶So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As Jehovah lives, that made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men that seek your life. ¹⁷Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, this says Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall live, and your house. ¹⁸But if you will not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chal-de-ans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand. ¹⁹And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen away to the Chal-de-ans, unless they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. ²⁰But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beseech you, the voice of Jehovah, in that which I speak unto you: so it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. ²¹But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that Jehovah has showed me: ²²behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say, your familiar friends have set you on, and have prevailed over you: now that your feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back. ²³And they shall bring out all your wives and your children to the Chal-de-ans; and you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire. ²⁴Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and you shall not die. ²⁵But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come unto you, and say unto you, Declare unto us now what you have said unto the king; hide it not from us, and we will not put you to death; also what the king said unto you: ²⁶then you shall say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there. ²⁷Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. ²⁸So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

39 And it came to pass when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it; ²in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city,) ³that all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, to wit, Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. ⁴And it came to pass that, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah. ⁵But the army of the Chal-de-ans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Ha-math; and he gave judgment upon him. ⁶Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of Judah. ⁷Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. ⁸And the Chal-de-ans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹Then Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people that remained in the city, the deserters also that fell away to him, and the residue of the people that remained. ¹⁰But Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, that had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

¹¹Now Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard, saying, ¹²Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto you. ¹³So Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon; ¹⁴they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and committed him unto Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, the son of Sha-phan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people. ¹⁵Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying, ¹⁶Go, and speak to Ebed-melech the E-thi-o-pi-an, saying, this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished before you in that day. ¹⁷But I will deliver you in that day, says Jehovah; and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. ¹⁸For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be for a prey unto you; because you have put your trust in me, says Jehovah.

40 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, that were carried away captive unto Babylon. ²And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, Jehovah your God pronounced this evil upon this place; ³and Jehovah has brought it, and done according as he spoke: because you have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. ⁴And now, behold, I loose you this day from the chains which are upon your hand. If it seem good unto you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will look well unto you; but if it seem ill unto you to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before you; where it seems good and right unto you to go, go there. ⁵Now while he was not yet gone back, he said Go back then, to Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, the son of Sha-phan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wheresoever it seems right unto you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go. ⁶Then Jeremiah went unto Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.

⁷Now when all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam governor in the land, and had committed unto him men, and women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of them that were not carried away captive to Babylon; ⁸then they came to Ged-a-li-ah to Mizpah, to wit, Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, and Jo-ha-nan and Jonathan the sons of Ka-re-ah, and Se-rai-ah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jez-a-ni-ah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. ⁹And Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam the son of Sha-phan swore unto them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chal-de-ans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. ¹⁰As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chal-de-ans that shall come unto us: but you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken. ¹¹Likewise when all the Jews that were in Mo-ab, and among the children of Am-mon, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, the son of Sha-phan; ¹²then all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Ged-a-li-ah, unto Mizpah, and gathered much wine and summer fruits. ¹³Moreover Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, came to Ged-a-li-ah to Mizpah, ¹⁴and said unto him, do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Am-mon has sent Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah to take your life? But Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam believed them not. ¹⁵Then Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah spoke to Ged-a-li-ah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, and no man shall know it: why should he take your life, that all the Jews that are gathered unto you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish? ¹⁶But Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam said unto Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, you shall not do this thing; for you speak falsely of Ishmael.

41 Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah. ²Then arose Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, and the ten men that were with him, and struck Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam the son of Sha-phan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. ³Ishmael also killed all the Jews that were with him, to wit, with Ged-a-li-ah, at Mizpah, and the Chal-de-ans that were found there, the men of war. ⁴And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Ged-a-li-ah, and no man knew it, ⁵that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the house of Jehovah. ⁶And Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them, Come to Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam. ⁷And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah killed them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that were with him. ⁸But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and killed them not among their brethren. ⁹Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain, by the side of Ged-a-li-ah (the same was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel,) Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah filled it with them that were slain. ¹⁰Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard had committed to Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam; Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Am-mon.

¹¹But when Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah had done, ¹²then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. ¹³Now it came to pass that, when all the people that were with Ishmael saw Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad. ¹⁴So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went unto Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah. ¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah escaped from Jo-ha-nan with eight men, and went to the children of Am-mon. ¹⁶Then took Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, to wit, the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon: ¹⁷and they departed, and dwelt in Geruth Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt, ¹⁸because of the Chal-de-ans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Neth-a-ni-ah had slain Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

42 Then all the captains of the forces, and Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and Jez-a-ni-ah the son of Ho-shai-ah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near, ²and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray you, our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us unto Jehovah your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do behold us: ³that Jehovah your God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do. ⁴Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto Jehovah your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you. ⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, Jehovah be a true and faithful witness amongst us, if we do not according to all the word wherewith Jehovah your God shall send through you to us. ⁶Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Jehovah our God.

⁷And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah. ⁸Then he called  Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, ⁹and said unto them, this says Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom you sent me to present your supplication before him: ¹⁰If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil that I have done unto you. ¹¹Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says Jehovah: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. ¹²And I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. ¹³But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you obey not the voice of Jehovah your God, ¹⁴saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: ¹⁵now therefore hear the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; ¹⁶then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof you are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. ¹⁷So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. ¹⁸For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth upon you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an abomination, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more. ¹⁹Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go not into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified unto you this day. ²⁰For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God; and according unto all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it: ²¹and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which he has sent me unto you. ²²Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to sojourn there.

43 And it came to pass that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of Jehovah their God, wherewith Jehovah their God had sent him to them, even all these words, ²then spoke Az-a-ri-ah the son of Ho-shai-ah, and Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, you speak falsely: Jehovah our God has not sent you to say, you shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there; ³but Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah sets you on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chal-de-ans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon. ⁴So Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of Jehovah, to dwell in the land of Judah. ⁵But Jo-ha-nan the son of Ka-re-ah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Judah; ⁶the men, and the women, and the children, and the king’s daughters, and every person that Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard had left with Ged-a-li-ah the son of A-hi-kam, the son of Sha-phan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah; ⁷and they came into the land of Egypt; for they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah: and they came unto Tah-pan-hes.  ⁸Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah in Tah-pan-hes, saying, ⁹Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them in mortar in the brickwork, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tah-pan-hes, in the sight of the men of Judah; ¹⁰and say unto them, This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Neb-u-chad-nez-zar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. ¹¹And he shall come, and shall smite the land of Egypt; such as are for death shall be given to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. ¹²And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from there in peace. ¹³He shall also break the pillars of Beth-she-mesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire.

44 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, that dwelt at Migdol, and at Tah-pan-hes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Path-ros, saying, ²This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: you have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein, ³because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. ⁴Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. ⁵But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. ⁶Wherefore my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day. ⁷Therefore this says Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave none remaining; ⁸in that you provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are gone to sojourn; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? ⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers. ¹¹Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah. ¹²And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an abomination, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. ¹³For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; ¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great assembly, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Path-ros, answered Jeremiah, saying, ¹⁶As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah, we will not hearken unto you. ¹⁷But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil. ¹⁸But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. ¹⁹And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, we did make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our husbands?

²⁰Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people that had given him that answer, saying, ²¹The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and did it not come into his mind? ²²so that Jehovah could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. ²³Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as it is this day. ²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: ²⁵This says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, you and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her: then establish your vows, and perform your vows. ²⁶Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Jehovah, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Jehovah lives. ²⁷Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. ²⁸And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs. ²⁹And this shall be the sign unto you, says Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: ³⁰This says Jehovah, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hoph-ra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.

45 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto Bar-uch the son of Ne-ri-ah, when he wrote these word in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah, saying, ²This says Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto you, O Bar-uch: ³You did say, Woe is me now! for Jehovah has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. ⁴This shall you say unto him, this says Jehovah: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. ⁵And seek great things for yourself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says Jehovah; but your life will I give unto you for a prey in all places where you go.

46 The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. ²Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Car-che-mish, which Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Je-hoi-a-kim the son of Jo-si-ah, king of Judah. ³Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle. ⁴Harness the horses, and get ready the horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail. ⁵Wherefore have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled for refuge, and look not back: terror is on every side, says Jehovah. ⁶Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen. ⁷Who is this that rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers? ⁸Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and the inhabitants thereof. ⁹Go up, horses and chariots and rage; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, that handle the shield; and the Ludim, that handle and bend the bow. ¹⁰For that day is a day of the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be filled, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. ¹¹Go up into Gil-e-ad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together. ¹³The word that Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴Declare in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tah-pan-hes: say, Stand forth, and prepare; for the sword has devoured round about you. ¹⁵Why are your strong ones swept away? they stood not, because Jehovah did drive them. ¹⁶He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword. ¹⁷They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by. ¹⁸As I live, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come. ¹⁹O you daughter that dwell in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant. ²⁰Egypt is a very fair heifer; but destruction out of the north is come, it is come. ²¹Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they did not stand: for the day of their calamity is come upon them, the time of their visitation. ²²The sound thereof shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood. ²³They shall cut down her forest, says Jehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable. ²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north. ²⁵Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and them that trust in him: ²⁶and I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says Jehovah. ²⁷But fear not, O Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. ²⁸Fear not, O Jacob my servant, says Jehovah; for I am with you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will not leave you unpunished.

47 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza. ²This says Jehovah: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and them that dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail. ³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers look not back to their children for feebleness of hands; ⁴because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains: for Jehovah will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caph-tor. ⁵Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ash-ke-lon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself? ⁶O you sword of Jehovah, how long will it be until you be quiet? put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still. ⁷How can you be quiet, seeing Jehovah has given you a charge? Against Ash-ke-lon, and against the sea-shore, there has he appointed it.

48 Of Mo-ab. this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is laid waste; kir-i-a-tha-im is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down. ²The praise of Mo-ab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. you also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue you. ³The sound of a cry from Hor-o-na-im, desolation and great destruction! ⁴Mo-ab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. ⁵For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up; for at the descent of Hor-o-na-im they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction. ⁶Flee, save your lives, and be like the juniper in the wilderness. ⁷For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together. ⁸And the destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Jehovah has spoken. ⁹Give wings unto Mo-ab, that she may fly and get herself away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein. ¹⁰Cursed be he that does the work of Jehovah negligently; and cursed be he that keeps back his sword from blood. ¹¹Mo-ab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. ¹²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will send unto him them that pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces. ¹³And Mo-ab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.

¹⁴How do you say, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war? ¹⁵Mo-ab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts. ¹⁶The calamity of Mo-ab is near to come, and his affliction hastens fast. ¹⁷All you that are round about him, bemoan him, and all you that know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod! ¹⁸O you daughter that dwell in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Mo-ab is come up against you, he has destroyed your strongholds. ¹⁹O inhabitant of A-ro-er, stand by the way, and watch: ask him that flees, and her that escape; say, What has been done? ²⁰Mo-ab is put to shame; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell you it by the Arnon, that Mo-ab is laid waste. ²¹And judgment is come upon the plain country, upon Holon, and upon Ja-ha-zah, and upon Meph-a-ath, ²²and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-dib-la-tha-im, ²³and upon kir-i-a-tha-im, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, ²⁴and upon Ker-i-oth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Mo-ab, far or near. ²⁵The horn of Mo-ab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says Jehovah. ²⁶Make him drunken; for he magnified himself against Jehovah: and Mo-ab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. ²⁷For was not Israel a derision unto you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you shake the head. ²⁸O you inhabitants of Mo-ab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss. ²⁹We have heard of the pride of Mo-ab, that he is very proud; his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogancy, and the haughtiness of his heart. ³⁰I know his wrath, says Jehovah, that it is nothing; his boastings have wrought nothing. ³¹Therefore will I wail for Mo-ab; yes, I will cry out for all Mo-ab: for the men of Kir-heres shall mourn. ³²With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Jazer: upon your summer fruits and upon your vintage the destroyer is fallen. ³³And gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Mo-ab; and I have caused wine to cease from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; there shall be no shouting. ³⁴From the cry of Heshbon even unto El-e-a-leh, even unto Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Hor-o-na-im, Like a three-year-old heifer: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate. ³⁵Moreover I will cause to cease in Mo-ab, says Jehovah, him that offered in the high place, and him that burns incense to his gods. ³⁶Therefore my heart sounds for Mo-ab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished. ³⁷For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. ³⁸On all the housetops of Mo-ab and in the streets thereof there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Mo-ab like a vessel wherein none delights, says Jehovah. ³⁹How is it broken down! how do they wail! how has Mo-ab turned the back with shame! so shall Mo-ab become a derision and a terror to all that are round about him. ⁴⁰For this says Jehovah: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Mo-ab. ⁴¹Ker-i-oth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Mo-ab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. ⁴²And Mo-ab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Jehovah. ⁴³Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of Mo-ab, says Jehovah. ⁴⁴He that flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon him, even upon Mo-ab, the year of their visitation, says Jehovah. ⁴⁵They that fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Mo-ab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones. ⁴⁶Woe unto you, O Mo-ab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity. ⁴⁷Yet will I bring back the captivity of Mo-ab in the latter days, says Jehovah. this far is the judgment of Mo-ab.

49 Of the children of Am-mon. this says Jehovah: has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof? ²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rab-bah of the children of Am-mon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess them that did possess him, says Jehovah. ³Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rab-bah, gird yourselves with sackcloth: lament, and run to and fro among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together. ⁴Wherefore glory in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me? ⁵Behold, I will bring a fear upon you, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, from all that are round about you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives. ⁶But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Am-mon, says Jehovah.

⁷Of Edom. this says Jehovah of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? ⁸Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of De-dan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I shall visit him. ⁹If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, would they not destroy till they had enough? ¹⁰But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brethren, and his neighbors; and he is not. ¹¹Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me. ¹²For this says Jehovah: Behold, they to whom it pertained not to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink; and are you, he that shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. ¹³For I have sworn by myself, says Jehovah, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. ¹⁴I have heard tidings from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. ¹⁵For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. ¹⁶As for your terribleness, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you that dwell in the clefts of the rock, that hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Jehovah. ¹⁷And Edom shall become an astonishment: every one that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. ¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says Jehovah, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein. ¹⁹Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that will stand before me? ²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them. ²¹The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise whereof is heard in the Red Sea. ²²Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

²³Of Damascus. Ha-math is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil tidings, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. ²⁴Damascus is become feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. ²⁵How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? ²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Jehovah of hosts. ²⁷And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

²⁸Of Ke-dar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon struck. this says Jehovah: Arise, go up to Ke-dar, and destroy the children of the east. ²⁹Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Terror on every side! ³⁰Flee, wander far off, dwell in the depths, O you inhabitants of Hazor, says Jehovah; for Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. ³¹Arise, get up unto a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says Jehovah; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone. ³²And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a plunder: and I will scatter unto all winds them that have the corners of their hair cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Jehovah. ³³And Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation for ever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

³⁴The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵This says Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. ³⁶And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come. ³⁷And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, says Jehovah; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them; ³⁸and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from then king and princes, says Jehovah. ³⁹But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Jehovah.

50 The word that Jehovah spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chal-de-ans, by Jeremiah the prophet. ²Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed. ³For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast. ⁴In those days, and in that time, says Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God. ⁵They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces toward it, saying, Come, and join yourselves to Jehovah in ** an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. ⁶My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place. ⁷All that found them have devoured them; and ** their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers. ⁸Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chal-de-ans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

⁹For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain. ¹⁰And Chal-de-a shall be a prey: all that prey upon her shall be satisfied, says Jehovah. ¹¹Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you that plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses; ¹²your mother shall be utterly put to shame; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. ¹³Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: every one that goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. ¹⁴Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵Shout against her round about: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her. ¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land. ¹⁷Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon has broken his bones. ¹⁸Therefore this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. ¹⁹And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and in Gil-e-ad. ²⁰In those days, and in that time, says Jehovah, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

²¹Go up against the land of Mer-a-tha-im, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pe-kod: slay and utterly destroy after them, says Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded you. ²²A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. ²³How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ²⁴I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon, and you were not aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Jehovah. ²⁵Jehovah has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, has a work to do in the land of the Chal-de-ans. ²⁶Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left. ²⁷Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. ²⁸The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his temple. ²⁹Call together the archers against Babylon, all them that bend the bow; encamp against her round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her; for she has been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Jehovah. ³¹Behold, I am against you, O you proud one, says the Lord, Jehovah of hosts; for your day is come, the time that I will visit you. ³²And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all that are round about him.

³³This says Jehovah of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all that took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go. ³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. ³⁵A sword is upon the Chal-de-ans, says Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. ³⁶A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. ³⁷A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed. ³⁸A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols. ³⁹Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall no more be inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. ⁴⁰As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, says Jehovah, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein. ⁴¹Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. ⁴²They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon. ⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the tidings of them, and his hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. ⁴⁴Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that can stand before me? ⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chal-de-ans: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them. ⁴⁶At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

51 This says Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind. ²And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. ³Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lift himself up in his coat of mail: and spare not her young men; destroy utterly all her host. ⁴And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chal-de-ans, and thrust through in her streets. ⁵For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. ⁶Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense. ^{** 7}Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. ⁸Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. ⁹We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. ¹⁰Jehovah has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God. ¹¹Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple. ¹²Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. ¹³O you that dwell upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, the measure of your covetousness. ¹⁴Jehovah of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you. ¹⁵He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: ¹⁶when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brought forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁷Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁸They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name. ²⁰You are my battle-axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms; ²¹and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; ²²and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin; ²³and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies. ²⁴And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chal-de-a all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says Jehovah. ²⁵Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says Jehovah, which bends all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. ²⁶And they shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says Jehovah. ²⁷Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ash-che-naz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm. ²⁸Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion. ²⁹And the land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. ³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken. ³¹One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter: ³²and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened. ³³For this says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her. ³⁴Neb-u-chad-nez-zar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has cast me out. ³⁵The inhabitant of Zion shall say, The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon; and, Jerusalem  shall say, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chal-de-a. ³⁶Therefore this says Jehovah: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. ³⁷And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant. ³⁸They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions’ whelps. ³⁹When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and wake not, says Jehovah. ⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. ⁴¹How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! ⁴²The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. ⁴³Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby. ⁴⁴And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more unto him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. ⁴⁵My people, go out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah. ⁴⁶And let not your heart faint, neither fear for the tidings that shall be heard in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come tidings, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. ⁴⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. ⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, says Jehovah. ⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land. ⁵⁰You that have escaped the sword, go, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. ⁵¹We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house. ⁵²Wherefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. ⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come unto her, says Jehovah. ⁵⁴The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chal-de-ans! ⁵⁵For Jehovah lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered: ⁵⁶for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of recompenses, he will surely recompense. ⁵⁷And I will make her princes drunk and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts. ⁵⁸This says Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Se-rai-ah the son of Ne-ri-ah, the son of Ma-a-sei-ah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Se-rai-ah was chief chamberlain. ⁶⁰And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Se-rai-ah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, ⁶²and say, O Jehovah, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. ⁶³And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: ⁶⁴and you shall say, this shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. this far are the words of Jeremiah.

52 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ²And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Je-hoi-a-kim had done. ³For through the anger of Jehovah did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Neb-u-chad-nez-zar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. ⁵So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ⁶In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁷Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chal-de-ans were against the city round about;) and they went toward the Arabah. ⁸But the army of the Chal-de-ans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. ⁹Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Ha-math; and he gave judgment upon him. ¹⁰And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹²Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Neb-u-chad-nez-zar, king of Babylon, came Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem: ¹³and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. ¹⁴And all the army of the Chal-de-ans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. ¹⁵Then Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people that were left in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude. ¹⁶But Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. ¹⁷And the pillars of brass that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of Jehovah, did the Chal-de-ans break in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon. ¹⁸The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, they took away. ¹⁹And the cups, and the firepans, and the basins, and the pots, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the bowls--that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,-- the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah--the brass of all these vessels was without weight. ²¹And as for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow. ²²And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capital round about, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like unto these, and pomegranates. ²³And there were ninety and six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network round about.

²⁴And the captain of the guard took Se-rai-ah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold: ²⁵and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war; and seven men of them that saw the king’s face, that were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶And Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. ²⁷And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Ha-math. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. ²⁸This is the people whom Neb-u-chad-nez-zar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty; ²⁹in the eighteenth year of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons; ³⁰in the three and twentieth year of Neb-u-chad-nez-zar Neb-u-zar-ad-an the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.